Marthe Walvoort to receive KNAW Early Career Award

Marthe Walvoort has been awarded the Early Career Award by the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences). The KNAW presents twelve of these awards to researchers at Dutch universities annually. The award is intended for young researchers with innovative, original research ideas. The winners' research is relevant to society: Marthe Walvoort is researching 'healthy' sugars.

The KNAW Early Career Awards, consisting of €15,000 and a work of art, will be presented during a celebratory event in KNAW’s Trippenhuis on February 14, 2022. Walvoort is Associate Professor of Chemical Glycobiology at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry and receives her award in the domain of Natural Sciences and Technology.

Expert on ‘healthy’ sugars

Marthe Walvoort is an expert on sugar molecules. She and her team of young researchers focus on the sugars in breast milk with the aim of discovering which ones contribute to the healthy development of babies. Her innovative approach is producing new insights into the functioning of these ‘healthy’ sugars. She is also intrigued by the sugars made by pathogenic bacteria. By identifying these sugars, Walvoort is helping to develop a new strategy for preventing bacterial infections.

Twist to a work of art

The winners represent the full breadth of science and have been selected in the four Academy domains: Humanities; Behavioural Sciences, Social Sciences and Law; Natural Sciences and Engineering; and Medical, Biomedical and Health Sciences. There are three winners in each domain. The KNAW Early Career Award consists of a monetary award of €15,000 and an art object by Laura Klinkenberg. It is a brass screw with a twist, representing the ‘twist’ needed in both research and art to come up with new ideas and symbolising the contrariness of research.

More information

Walvoort tells all about her research on ‘healthy’ sugars in her podcast (in Dutch).